


I'll Drink to That

by EarlGrayJasmine



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, First Meetings, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29147427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarlGrayJasmine/pseuds/EarlGrayJasmine
Summary: On the night before the second Abydos mission, Sam and Jack have a slightly different first meeting than they let on.(previously titled "All Along")
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 24
Kudos: 118





	1. A Late Night Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to see where this would lead. There are at least two more chapters, but depending on how it goes it might become the jumping off point for a longer fic.

_Consider yourself recalled to active duty Colonel._

General Hammonds words ricochetted through Jack’s mind as he got in his car to drive home. It was late, past midnight, though you’d never know it in the glow of sodium lights twenty-odd stories down in Cheyanne Mountain. The base was bustling in its ceaseless way. Even outside beneath the dark, clear sky the place felt untethered from time. Airmen patrolled the platform above the entrance as Jack drove out as surely as they did at noon. It was only once he’d left the base behind for the quiet Colorado woods that a sense of night returned.

The mission briefing would be at 0800. That meant he had a few hours to return home and press his dress uniform before heading back to the base. Theoretically he could grab some sleep but even as late as it was, Jack doubted it. Adrenaline buzzed in his veins.

 _Back through the Stargate_. Of course he had thought about it. He thought about the Stargate more than he tried to, certainly more than he liked. Just a few hours ago, before Major Samuels had showed up to spoil his evening, Jack had been on his roof gazing through his telescope. He had always had an interest in astronomy but the moment he stepped through the event horizon to Abydos he knew the sky would look different. Even a year later it whispered to him, teased him. The planets and the stars tracked their familiar paths but now he knew what was out there among them. Aliens. Ships. Inhabited planets. More than he could have ever dreamed of.

The anticipation built in his muscles until he felt like he could run the rest of the way to his house. The thought of trying to sleep was laughable. He would press his uniform, maybe a few times, and then what? Jack pictured himself pacing endlessly through his living room as the city slept and the other side of the galaxy waited for him. The minutes would feel like eons. Even now Jack rocked his hands back and forth on the steering wheel. If he didn’t find something to do he might crawl right out of his skin.

The lights of Colorado Springs rose through the trees. It was nearly one in the morning now and besides the glow of security lights and a few 24 hour gas stations the city was asleep. Jack took a few extra turns through downtown to kill some time and on a street he normally didn’t take an unassuming pub caught his attention. What he noticed most of all was the little neon ‘open’ sign glowing in the window.

He shouldn’t, not this close to a mission briefing. Or, for that matter, a mission. But the thought of sitting home and waiting made him want to scream, so Jack doubled back and turned into the parking lot.

Inside the lights were low and an oldies station played over the radio. A few collage kids played a late night game of pool in the corner and a group of drunk old friends laughed it up from one of the booths.Other than that chairs were up on the tables and the place was quiet, except for a few other stragglers at the bar. They seemed to be clustered at the ends so Jack took a seat near the middle. He ordered a beer and nursed it for a minute before he decided it might help pass the time to talk.

“What’s the coolest thing you wanted to be when you were a kid?” he said to anyone who might want to answer.

“An astronaut,” the nearest other patron said without hesitation. Jack looked up. He hadn’t been paying much attention to who he was talking to, but the voice caught his attention. It rang with a passion that struck him as unusual, and refreshing.

He turned to her. “I was hoping for something like ‘fireman’ or ‘bellhop.’ That way I could say my job is way cooler,” Jack said. “Astronaut though, that’s pretty good.”

“Why? What did you want to be?”

“Buck Rogers”

The woman laughed. “It doesn’t get much cooler than that. But wait, now I have to know what your job is. What can compete with the hero of the future?”

Jack pursed his lips. He hadn’t thought this through. “Oh, it’s…a long story. Let’s just say I’m about to do something I thought I’d never get to do again.”

“Conquer Mars?”

“Something like that.” He took another swig of his beer. “What about you Ms. Astronaut, what do you do?”

“It’s actually Dr. Astronaut now,” she said. “Well, doctor of theoretical astrophysics anyway.”

Jack whistled in awe. “You know you’re really not making it easy on my bit.”

The woman laughed again but there was pride in her eyes. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“Never,” Jack said. “So, what exactly does as astrophysicist such as yourself theorize?”

“All kinds of things. The future of our understanding of reality all lies out there.” She pointed to the ceiling.

“Just what I’d expect a theoretical astrophysicist to say,” Jack teased.

“For the past few years my work has dealt mainly with quantum theory as it pertains to molecular disintegration of matter across a set of known distances, particularly—” She cut herself off. She could tell she was loosing him. “Let’s leave it at quantum theory.”

Jack’s face must have read _oh thank god_ , because the woman smiled again.

“Actually,” she went on, “I’ve been working on this project for a long time but I’m finally about to see the results for myself.”

“You don’t say,” Jack mused. There were only so many places for work like that in the world, let alone in Colorado Springs. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with deep space radar telemetry, would it?”

Her eyes jumped in surprise. And why shouldn’t they? Jack had just used the official cover story for the Stargate Program. “I don’t—” she began.

“Relax.” He fished his Cheyanne Mountain ID badge out of his wallet. “I’m somewhat familiar with radar telemetry myself, though by the sounds of it not _quite_ the way you are.”

He showed it to the woman, who was too focused on verifying the authenticity of the badge to notice his name. If she had she would have recognized Col. Jonathan O’Neill as the decorated officer who lead the first Stargate mission, whose report she had scoured for every shred of information about gate travel.

But she didn’t, because the man sitting beside he didn’t seem like a daring adventurer or a ruthless soldier. In fact, he seemed rather charming. There had been a barstool or two between them, but the man moved to the one beside her and held out his hand. “Jack.”

“Sam,” she said, returning his handshake. His credentials seemed legitimate but if he didn’t intend to announce his name and title to the bar then she wouldn’t either.

“Nice to meet you Sam.”


	2. A Late Night Meeting, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our new acquaintances part ways at the bar but hope to see each other again soon. If only they knew how soon.

Jack took another few sips of his beer in silence as his mind wandered. He was still thinking about the Stargate, but now the picture in his mind had changed. All evening he’d been thinking about stepping off the ramp and into the rest of the universe. For the first time he was thinking about coming home. He imagined returning, mission completed, and finding a certain scientist in the labs of the base. He imagined asking her out for coffee. He imagined her saying yes.

Jack coughed to rouse himself from the daydream. Sam looked at him.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” he said, “wrong pipe.” But he wasn’t so sure. His divorce from Sarah was barely a year old. Since then he hadn’t thought about another woman that way, hadn’t thought about moving on. Jack had gotten used to the idea that he might never have another real relationship. And yet here he was thinking about coffee with this woman Sam. He felt like his heart was a rogue subordinate who had charged into battle without his permission.

Sam was lovely, even in the middle of the night under the tired lights of the bar. When she talked about her work, her eyes had been the brightest thing in the room. The pixie cut worked for her too.

Jack knew it was a stretch. He doubted someone who was clearly so much younger and smarter and happier would want anything to do with him. Still, he thought there was no harm in enjoying the fantasy.

Little did he know that as Sam drained the last of her own beer she was looking at him from the side of her eye and having a similar conversation with herself. After she had ended her engagement to Jonas Hanson she had decided she was done with military men. Jonas had been so controlling, and that bravado was a pattern she noticed again and again in her colleagues. Of course, when you spend most of your time in a military lab, that doesn’t leave you many options.

Yet here was this man who was somehow involved with the Air Force—she didn’t know in what capacity—who was charming and funny. He seemed kind. Sad, but kind. Sam guessed he was maybe ten years older than her, but that suddenly seemed quite appealing. The gray hair suited him.

Assuming the upcoming mission was a success she might not be here for long. She had only flown in from Washington a few hours ago and if there was no further threat from the Stargate she might be leaving just as soon. Still, maybe somewhere in there they would find the time to have a drink.

“Get you another?” the bartender asked.

“No, thank you,” Sam said. “I’ve got an early day tomorrow.” She checked her watch. “Or I guess today.”

The bartender asked the same of Jack and when he also declined, the man stuck two printed receipts in front of them and waddled away.

“I can’t believe I’m here,” Sam said.

“Big day.”

“No I mean _here_.” She gestured around the bar. “I should be getting ready for tomorrow but how do you prepare for something you’ve been waiting for that long? I couldn’t sleep.”

“I can imagine.”

She turned to him with a thoughtful smile. “But I’m glad I came.”

Sam put some money on the bar and stood up to leave, but she turned back to Jack. “You wouldn’t happen to want to grab a drink again some time, would you?”

Before he could stop himself Jack said, “I’d like that.”

Sam scribbled her number on a napkin. “Well, I’ll see you around I guess,” she said. “Maybe even tomorrow.”

“Maybe even tomorrow,” he mused to himself as she left. He needed to think about his mission. He needed to assemble his team, to be a leader and a soldier. But in the back of his mind he couldn’t help think that if he was lucky, he would see the lovely blonde scientist again soon.

If only he knew how soon, perhaps he could have stopped himself from thinking about her. Instead he enjoyed the next few hours wondering what could be. It would be the last time those wonderings wouldn’t be tinged with sadness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This probably would have worked as one chapter but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	3. Captain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack arrives at the Abydos mission briefing and receives quite the surprise re: the woman at the bar. Their "first meeting" is actually their second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All dialogue through “I don’t mean to put a damper on your enthusiasm…” comes from Episode 101 Children of the Gods Pt 1. I thought it'd be fun to see Jack and Sam's first meeting with new context--it's actually their second!

The woman from the bar was still on his mind as Jack walked through the base the next morning. He caught himself glancing through doorways and scolded himself. He had work to do.

Assembled before General Hammond in the conference room, and with the Stargate looming below, it wasn’t hard to find focus. General Hammond told him, “I’m assigning Sam Carter to this mission,” and in the back of his mind he thought, _hmm I guess it’s been a day for Sams._ Jack had bigger concerns. He already had a list in mind.

“I’d prefer to put together my own team Sir.”

“I’m sorry, not on this mission. Carter’s our expert on the Stargate.”

“Where’s he transferring from?”

“ _She_ is transferring from the Pentagon,” a familiar voice rang out.

Jack snapped his head up to see Sam—his Sam—striding through the doorway. Except now she wasn’t a tired traveler at a bar. She had ditched her jeans and leather jacket for a crisp Air Force dress uniform, just as he had.

She walked up to him without hesitation. There was the barest hint of exasperation in her voice. “I take it you’re Colonel O’Neill.”

Jack studied her face but couldn’t make out anything but composure.

“Captain Samantha Carter reporting Sir,” she said with a crisp salute. What could Jack do but salute back? They studied each other, both trying to read something in the cracks, until Major Kowalski interrupted.

“But of course you go by Sam,” Kowalski said.

Hammond wasn’t having any of that. “Let’s get started.” He looked to Jack. “Colonel?”

“Right. For those of you on your first trip through the gate—” He focused on Sam. She certainly hadn’t gone through with him last time, and what had she said last night? She was finally going to see her work pay off in person. That made plenty of sense now. “—you should be prepared for what to expect.”

“Well I’ve practically memorized your report from the first mission Sir,” she said. “I’d like to think I’ve been preparing for this all my life.”

Was that a smug look on her face? Jack almost thought it was. Sam didn’t break his gaze until Kowalski once again addressed her directly.

“I think what the colonel is saying is, have you ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at 8+ Gs?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

Jack raised an eyebrow. Impressive.

Kowalski scrambled. “Well it’s way worse than that.”

One of the other officers jumped to his aid. “By the time you get to the other side you’re frozen stiff, like you’ve just been through a blizzard.”

“That’s a result of the compression your molecules undergo during the millisecond required for reconstitution.” Again, she didn’t hesitate.

“Oh here we go.” Jack was teasing but there was a bite to his voice. “Another scientist. General, please.”

“Theoretical astrophysicist,” Sam reminded him.

“Which means…?”

“Which means she’s smarter than you are Colonel,” Hammond said, “especially in matters related to the Stargate.”

The boys got a good chuckle out of that one. Jack caught a flash of last night’s beaming smile on Sam’s face.

“Well you can believe this has nothing to do with you being a woman,” Jack said, taking his seat. He wanted to be clear on that. _That_ wasn’t the reason he was hesitant to have her on his team. “I like women.”

Sam hid the faintest smirk.

“I’ve just got a little problem with scientists.”

In his experience they didn’t do so well in the field. Past a certain threshold of smart, people tended to get stupid in a whole other direction. And since Sam was clearly brilliant, he doubted she’s be much good in combat.

As if she could read his mind she responded, “Well Colonel, I logged over one hundred hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. That tough enough for you? Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?”

It was only years of military training that stopped the thought that crossed his mind from showing on his face. Jack cracked a smile. So did Sam. Her gaze felt magnetic.

Samuels coughed, snapping Jack out of the moment. “I don’t mean to put a damper on your enthusiasm…” he began. They debated the merits of the mission until Hammond finally agreed to send them thought the gate. The general rose and everyone at the table stood with him.

As the other men collected their things Jack looked at Sam. _Captain Carter_ , he reminded himself. She gave him a knowing nod and followed the others out.

When he saw her again she was assembled with the other soldiers in the hallway outside the gateroom. It was a sea of desert camouflage and backpacks and firearms. Once again she looked like an entirely different person. He must have been staring because Sam said, "Sir?"

Jack shook his head and focused elsewhere. “Nothing Captain. As you were.”

He was sure she'd forgotten about it but a few minutes later, as the men jostled for position through the gateroom door, she stepped up beside him.

“I’m not what you thought I’d be.” It wasn’t a question. The slightest sadness in her expression suggested this had happened before.

“No,” Jack answered honestly, “nothing like it.”

He made sure to swallow the rest of his thought as they entered the gateroom: _You're much more interesting._


	4. The Elevator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SG1 gets ready for its next mission and Jack and Sam set some boundaries.

They had been summoned to the base that morning for the first official debrief of team SG-1, their new friend Teal'c included. Jack watched General Hammond try his best to keep the astonishment off his face as the four of them detailed the rescue on Chulak. In truth though, Jack was more interested in what came next.

"So," he said when the bulk of the debrief was through. "SG-1. The four of us. Going through the gate. Again."

Everyone looked at him.

"Well, when can we expect this next shindig to happen?"

"I am unfamiliar with this term," Teal'c said.

"Shindig is a casual term for a party," Daniel filled in, "but I think Jack's asking about our next mission."

"Our explorations will be fraught with danger. They are unlikely to be shindigs."

"All depends on your definition of a party," Jack said.

Teal'c looked to Daniel for clarification. Had they not just defined 'party'? Daniel was in the middle of making a "not worth engaging" gesture when Carter jumped in.

"We can expect the base's supercomputer to calculate the planetary drift of two or three gate addresses a month."

"A _month_?" Jack leaned forward in his chair.

"Yes Sir, a month."

"That's nine teams, divided by two or three missions a month divided by—” Jack counted on his fingers for effect, but he had no intentions of doing the math. "Carter how much down time is that?"

"You might be here more than you'll be off-world," General Hammond said, "but I'd hardly call it down time. Two teams will be on base at all times in case of emergencies and of course we'll be requiring detailed mission reports of every encounter."

 _Paperwork_. "And you're all okay with this?"

"Actually Sir I have weeks of work ahead of me on the gate calculations alone. I doubt I'll be done before the next mission, possibly not one after that."

"And I have so much research to dig into," said Daniel. "Who knows what Ancient Egyptian records have to tell us about Apophis, his tactics, his allies."

Hammond nodded. "The materials you requested are on their way Dr. Jackson. You'll find your workspace on level 18."

"Sure the eggheads are busy." Jack looked to Teal'c. "What about you big guy?"

Teal'c stared back at him. "If I am to free my people from the Goa'uld, I have much to prepare for."

Jack hung his head dramatically.

"You'll be the first to know when a new address is available," General Hammond said. "Dismissed."

He stood and Jack and Sam stood up with him, Teal'c and Daniel a moment later.

"You heard the man," Jack said authoritatively, and he marched off to do…something. He hadn't quiet decided yet.

That evening, once he'd re-familiarized himself with the base layout, been to see Daniel's lab, and decidedly avoided Captain Carter's, Jack stepped into the elevator to head home. The numbers ticked up until they read 19. The doors opened to reveal the one person he wasn't sure he wanted to see waiting in the hallway. Sam nodded politely as she stepped in beside him.

"Colonel," she said by way of a greeting.

"Captain."

They shifted in the awkward silence as the elevator hummed upward. Sam wasn't sure what to say. Jack thought it might be best if he didn't say anything.

"So I take it you're not big on downtime," she offered.

"Oh no. I don't sit still well." As if to demonstrate, he rocked on the balls of his feet. "Sounds like you keep busy though."

"I could spend every day in that lab for the next fifty years and I would still only scratch the surface of what we've seen," Sam said. To Jack that sounded torturous but Sam's voice was alight with possibility just like it had been the other night.

 _Right,_ Jack thought. _The other night._ "So I guess this means drinks are off."

Sam gave a wistful half-laugh. “I guess it does."

"You know I almost thought—” Jack began but thought better of it. "Never mind."

"What?"

"Well for a minute there it looked like this was going to be a one time thing just like the last mission. If Daniel hadn't found those addresses and if you couldn't adjust them there'd be nowhere else to go. Don't get me wrong I'm thrilled. I'm jumping out of my boots for the next mission. I just thought…"

"You thought we might not be in the same chain of command for long," Sam filled in.

Jack shrugged. "Something like that."

She tried her best to hide a smile. "I haven't even unpacked my suitcase. I figured I'd be on a plane back to Washington by the end of the week. This all seemed too good to be true."

So they were on the same page. They had both kept that drink in the back of their minds, both thought there was still a chance they’d get to have it.

“I suppose that means we should talk about…” Jack struggled to find the words, so instead he gestured between them.

“What’s to talk about?”

“You don’t feel—” Jack began. Just then the elevator came to a stop and opened on floor eleven. Jack bit his tongue as they stepped out and crossed the small section of hallway leading to the second elevator. The doors shut and they resumed their ascent to the surface.

“—I don’t know,” he picked up, “like we’ve messed with some kind of rule?”

“You don’t strike me as much of a rule follower. As much as a decorated colonel can be I mean,” she added quickly.

Jack considered this. “Plenty of times no, but in this case, on this one, yes.”

“Good,” Sam smiled, “because I am a bit of a stickler.”

“You? No,” Jack mocked.

“But to answer your question Sir, let me ask you this,” she said. “If you had known who I was at the bar would you have done anything differently?”

“I probably wouldn’t have mentioned Buck Rogers,” Jack said. “But otherwise, no I guess not.”

“Then I think we’re fine.”

The elevator doors opened once again and Sam and Jack stepped out into the parking garage.

“I’m this way,” Sam said with a tilt of her head.

Jack pointed in the other direction. “I’m here. Goodnight Captain.”

“Goodnight Sir.”

Sam took a few steps away before she turned around and asked, “Colonel? You’re not the kind of CO who like to see much of his team outside of work, are you?”

She thought not, but wanted to ask.

“No, Carter I’m not. The opposite in fact,” said Jack. This conversation was already more chummy than he preferred. Then a thought occurred to him. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason. I just think it might be better if we didn’t see too much of each other after hours. Just in case.”

 _In case of what?_ Jack was tempted to ask but the wistful smile on her face said everything. In case they fell for each other any more than they already had.

“I think that’s for the best Captain,” he said. Jack headed for his car before he could say or think anything else. He could live with that. He would see Carter like any other subordinate he’d worked with. He would forget about the charming woman at the bar.

And he did. Jack enjoyed the company and the competence of having Carter on his team but nothing more. After months of working side by side he was sure it was nothing more.

Then came the ice.

→ onward to Solitudes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	5. Solitudes pt 1, Kansas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> O'Neill wakes up in a hospital in Australia and Carter has to tell him the ice plant wasn't what he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after ep 117 Solitudes 
> 
> (RECAP: A gate malfunction throws Sam and Jack onto an 'ice planet' that turns out to be Antarctica; Jack comes even closer to dying than usual)

He still felt cold.

As O’Neill came to he could feel the weight of blankets on his body and warm, sterile air on his face. Logically he knew he was no longer freezing to death, yet he could still feel the bite of the glacier as surely as if ice crystals were growing in his bones.

Of course if that were the case, it would mean he was dead. It occurred to Jack then that it was possible he was. Dead, that is. Maybe all that hot air was the fires of hell burning him up like his old Aunt Esther had always promised they would. He had been dying last he remembered. Carter probably wasn’t far behind him.

Carter.

Jack’s eyes shot open and blinked against the blur of bright lights on the ceiling. It wasn’t what he expected of hell but he supposed he didn’t know.

He rested there a moment as his eyes adjusted and definition came to the room. Unfortunately it also came to his body, which hurt positively everywhere, from the pounding headache in his skull to the tingling pain in his toes. Jack managed to roll his head far enough to see a familiar face sitting in a chair beside his bed.

“Carter?” His voice came out a hoarse whisper.

“Sir!” She stood up and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.“You’re alright.”

“If you insist,” Jack said, still mentally cataloguing his aches and pains.

“They expect you to make a full recovery.”

Jack took a more detailed look around the room. It was white and pleasant as far as hospital rooms went. There was a some kind of little painting hanging on the wall and a curtain was pulled over a large bank of windows that glowed brightly with sunlight. It was certainly not any part of the SGC.

“I take it we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Carter surprised him too. He had only seen her out of uniform a few times and something about the way she dressed always caught him off guard. Air Force fatigues just looked right on her, but today she wore jeans and a bubbly sleeveless blouse.

“Huh, Dorothy?” he asked.

Sam chuckled. “No Sir, we’re a long way from the base.”

“As in ‘miles’ long way or ‘light-years’ long way?”

“Colonel O’Neill,” a cheerful voice interrupted. A young man in a white coat entered from the hall. “Glad to have you back with us. I’m Dr. Chapman.”

He spoke with a very distinct Australian accent. That actually made less sense to Jack than if a ten foot tall alien had walked into the room. He searched Carter’s face for answers.

“Australia?” he said incredulously.

“Royal Melbourne Hospital to be precise,” said the doctor. He grabbed Jack’s chart and flipped through it.

“I’ll explain later,” Sam muttered.

“What’s the prognosis Doc?”

“For someone who’s had multiple emergency surgeries, excellent,” said the doctor. Jack nodded along as Dr. Chapman detailed his condition, but his brain felt like scrambled eggs. He hoped Carter was following. “It’s important that you get some rest.”

Dr. Chapman turned to Carter. “I’d ask you not to stay too long.”

“Of course,” said Sam. “Thank you Doctor.”

Chapman nodded and left the room. Once his footsteps had blended into the bustle of the hallways beyond, Jack turned to Sam.

“Were you following that? Because after the ‘you’re probably not dying’ part, I’ll be honest, I checked out,” Jack said. “And how the hell did I end up in a hospital in Australia?”

“Right,” said Carter. She took a deep breath as she returned to the chair beside Jack’s bed. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“You,” Jack said without thinking, “lying beside me as I froze to death on an ice planet.”

Sam shifted uncomfortably. Even though O’Neill was alright the memory stung more than she expected. She had been so sure he wouldn’t make it. Even as he lay here cracking jokes through a tired smile, she couldn’t let go of that feeling of dread.

“Wait!” Jack said, proudly raising a finger. “I had some internal bleeding too.”

“Yes, Sir, you did,” Carter explained. “The rescue team airlifted us to McMurdo Station. The medics there stabilized you enough to fly us here, but your lung collapsed in the air. You were rushed into surgery to stem the bleeding and reinflate your lung. Your leg was properly set and they took you for a CAT scan but your concussion is mild.”

“Just another day at the office then.” Jack tried for a chuckle but it turned rapidly into a cough. It clearly pained him.

“And you have multiple broken ribs.”

“You don’t say.”

Jack laid his head back on the pillow as he took it all in. Then a thought struck him and his eyes snapped back open. “Airlifted from where?”

“I need you to remember what the doctor said about staying calm and resting.”

“Airlifted from where, Carter?”

“So that ice planet…” she started.

“The one that nearly killed me, I’m familiar.”

“It turns out we were actually in Antarctica.”

“WHAT?” He tried to sit up. “I got flung through wormhole on the other side of space just to freeze to death on my own goddamn planet?!”

Carter rushed up and put a hand very gently on his shoulder to settle him down. “You need to lie still,” she reminded him. Her eyes shifted toward the door. “And we are in a civilian hospital Sir.”

“Explain to me how that’s possible.”

Sam did her best to summarize how the wormhole had jumped to a second gate on Earth and how Daniel had located them with earthquake data. She didn’t feel she needed to emphasize just how close a call it had been.

“I should let you rest.”

As she stood to leave Jack reached out and grabbed her arm. He turned it over, revealing the half-healed puncture marks of an IV. The scrape on her cheek was still visible too.

“Wait. What about you Carter, are you alright?”

She smiled softly. “Nothing a few IVs couldn’t solve. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Sam?”

Carter turned back.

“Thank you.”


	6. Solitudes pt 1.5, The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we deal with the wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This probably should have been part of the previous chapter, oops. : )

Sam was almost to the end of the hospital’s long, halogen-lit corridor when a thought occurred to her. Part of her wanted to ignore it—and she decided not to think too hard about why—but she knew she couldn’t. She doubled back and knocked on O’Neill’s door.

“Sir?”

“Tomorrow already?”

She smiled at his joke but it faded quickly. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask. I waited until you were awake because I wasn’t sure, I hope that’s okay, but—”

“Out with it Carter. I don’t have all day.” He did have all day, but the way Sam rambling made him uneasy.

“Do you want me to call your wife?”

“My wife?”

“Your ex-wife. Sarah.”

He still looked confused so Sam added, “You mentioned her back in Antarctica. In fact, you seemed to think…” She trailed off. In the last moments before O’Neill lost consciousness he had addressed _her_ as Sarah. “You seemed like you missed her.”

“Of course I miss her. But the doc said I’m supposed to make it right?”

Sam nodded.

“Then no. No need to bother her.”

“Okay,” she said. “I really will let you rest then.”

Carter left the hospital with a feeling she couldn’t identify. All she could tell was that through all the worries crowding her mind something was lighter.


	7. Solitudes pt 2, Fishing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam entertains Jack during his recovery and tries not to let her guilt get the better of her.

“Do you have any twos?”

“Go fish.”

Jack grabbed a card from the draw pile and added it to his hand. “You know when I said I wished I could go fishing, this isn’t what I meant.”

“Sorry Sir, it’s the best I could do,” Sam said. She had bought a pack of playing cards from the hospital gift shop. This was their fifth game of go fish that afternoon.

“Sevens?”

Sam handed over her cards, winning Jack the game. He gathered the deck up but didn’t deal again.

“You know gin rummy?” Jack asked.

Sam shook her head.

“I’ll teach you.” Jack considered how tired he was getting and added, “tomorrow. Assuming you’re coming again tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

Jack had been fiddling with the cards but he put them down. “You know you don’t have to babysit me Carter. You’re off duty. Go to the beach.”

“I haven’t been in much of a beach mood,” she said.

“Then go to the movies, or to a museum, or whatever it is you like to do. I’ll be fine.”

The truth was Sam had already been to the beach, and seen a movie, and wandered around three different museums. Nothing held her attention. While yes she was technically free to do as she pleased for the next few days this didn’t feel like a vacation. It felt like a punishment.

Without work to distract her all she could think about was how close she’d come to letting O’Neill die. Why hadn’t she just tried a different gate address? Chulak or Abydos or the Land of Light. Anything. Anywhere. Anywhere but Earth and they could have turned around and gated back to the SGC in seconds. Jack would have had medical treatment days sooner. Maybe he wouldn’t be in such bad shape now. Maybe he wouldn’t be in so much pain.

“Yoohoo, Earth to Sam,” Jack said, getting her attention. She snapped back from where her mind had wandered.

“Right, yes, I should do that.”

“I mean you have an entire city to explore. You can’t seriously tell me you’d rather be stuck in a little hospital room with me, can you?”

How could Sam explain that she kept gravitating back here? “I should let you rest.”

O’Neill must have caught some of the reluctance she was trying to hide because he said, “One more game.”

“You don’t have to.”

Jack dealt the cards for another game of go fish. “I insist.”

They traded cards back and forth for a few rounds, quiet except for the occasional request for kings or threes.

“Melbourne’s lovely this time of year,” Jack said.

Sam slammed her entire hand down on the overbed table. “If you want me to go I’ll go.”

“That isn’t want I said.”

“Then what do you want?”

“That I want you to enjoy yourself, see the sights. At least one of us should.”

Sam took a sharp breath to keep herself from snapping at him. Instead she looked away as she said, “This isn’t a vacation.”

“Not with that attitude.”

Sam stood up. Jack tried to reach for her arm to pull her back but she was out of range too quickly. She paced over to the windows.

“How are you so chipper all the time?”

“I thought you liked my charming demeanor,” O’Neill said, putting on a little strut as best he could from his bed.

“I do,” Sam said instinctively, “it’s just…”

Her shoulders slumped. Jack bit his tongue until she continued.

“People keep praising me for seeing you through this—the doctors, the rescue team, General Hammond, Daniel, Teal’c, everybody,” Sam said. “But that isn’t true. You said from the beginning we were going to make it out. I was the one who was certain we wouldn’t.”

“Carter listen to me.” Jack waved her over and she came.“You found the DHD. You dug it out of solid ice. You splinted my leg. You kept me drinking.”

“None of it mattered. If I had just tried another address—”

Jack grabbed her hand before she could wander back down that rabbit hole. “Sam. If you hadn’t dialed home Daniel never would have found us.”

“But maybe—”

“No more maybes. We made it.”

Sam rolled her eyes to keep them from misting over. “Even now you’re the optimistic one.”

O’Neill hesitated for a long moment before he said, “Sometimes bravado is all I have to contribute. Not often, but sometimes. If our roles had been reversed…well let’s just say uselessness isn’t on your resume.”

“I felt so helpless,” Sam said softly. She sat down on the edge of Jack’s bed. “I still do.”

“Nonsense,” said Jack. “If I recall, you were taking me fishing.”

He picked up his cards again and Sam followed. She smiled as they continued their game.

By the end of the week Jack was well enough that he could travel back to the States, though he still wasn’t particularly mobile. An ambulance drove him and Sam to the air field where a US Air Force cargo plane was waiting to take them home. Two airmen loaded Jack onto the plane and strapped his stretcher down along the wall were some of the jump seats had been folded up to make room. Sam took the seat beside him and strapped in. There were some crates of equipment that had been flown in to analyze the antarctic gate and a few airmen buckled in on the opposite wall, but otherwise the plane was empty.

Maybe that had something to do with it.

As he watched the cargo bay door rise up and swallow the daylight on the tarmac Jack was keenly away that their little break was ending. For the week of his hospital stay he and Sam hadn’t really been soldiers and they certainly hadn’t felt like SO and subordinate. Maybe it was something about laying down to die beside each other, but they had mostly felt like friends.

Before that easiness could disappear Jack said, “Carter?”

“Sir?”

“Have a drink with me.”

“I thought we decided—”

Jack held up a hand. “We did, and I stand by that. But you saved my life, and I owe you. At least let me buy you a beer.”

Sam gave only a sad smile in reply.

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s a bad idea. Forget I mentioned it.”

The plane took off and she braced herself for the long flight home. They didn’t talk much. O’Neill rested, and when turbulence shook the plane and rattled his leg and his barely-healed chest wounds Sam put a bracing hand on his shoulder.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the ice. She couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt to curl up beside Jack, to hold him close. _We were dying_ , she told herself. _That’s all I’m feeling._ But mixed in with the fear and the guilt wasn’t there something else? Something comfortable? Something warm?

 _It was an honor to serve with you,_ Jack had said when he thought it was over.

 _It was an honor serving with you too Colonel_ , she said when she though so too. 

Sam let the words melt through her as she replayed what was very nearly their last conversation. Every one of them was true. It was an absolute honor to serve with O’Neill, to follow him into battle and to fight by his side. But it as also an honor to sit beside him in the briefing room and fight a smile as he made cracks about the next mission that made Daniel shake his head and Teal’c raise an eyebrow. It was an honor to have him stop by her lab and look thoroughly, charmingly confused.

When they were freezing on the glacier Sam would have given anything for another one of those moment. And yes, once Jack’s leg healed and he was cleared for duty there would probably be more of them, more laughs on the base and more smiles. But the next time they stepped through the gate this could all happen again. Somebody might not come home. For the moment they were safe, and he was right beside her. How could Sam refuse the moment she’d been given?

At the next bout of turbulence Sam once again put a steadying hand on O’Neill’s shoulder, but this time once it passed she didn’t let go.

“I’d like that,” she said. “Drinks sometime.”

O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this fic started as like 2-3 separate story ideas and I thought, it's unlikely I'll write more than one so let's just do them all at once! But it turns out they didn't play as nicely with one another as I hoped. It took some noodling to bring the threads together but I thiiiiiiink I've got it to where I want it going forward. I changed the title to reflect what's become the dominant idea.
> 
> Hope you're having a nice day!


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